Like this:

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.

“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

“Barabbas,” they answered.

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, “Crucify him!”

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

—Matthew 27:19-25

*
There is a question that every person must ask themselves.

It is simply this—

What shall I do, then, with Jesus called the Messiah?

Will we believe in Him and His gift of eternal life?

Or will we refuse to acknowledge Him as the Son of God, leaving His gift for us behind?

The one who receives the gift then has something that they hadn’t before.

God did not want us to be lost forever without Him.

He didn’t want us to be separated from Him.

He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins.

Then, He offered us the gift of eternal life.

We did not have eternal life before.

There was no possible way for us to get it for ourselves.

The gift must be accepted.

What if Jesus spoke these words to you—

“My child, won’t you please accept this gift from Me?”

Would you accept?

*

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus traveled through Samaria and came to a town that was called Sychar. He sat down by a well in the middle of the day when it was very hot. When a woman came to draw water from that well, He asked her to give him a drink. This is what happened next:

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

I have read that there are just over 2 billion Christians in the world.

Consider this passage of words spoken to Jesus’ disciples:

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

If you are hoping that friends or family or coworkers or people in your neighborhood or even people in your church will have a change in heart and choose to follow God and then afterwards YOU will, it just isn’t the best idea.

There is only one clock of life ticking with you.

Everyone else has their own.

It’s ticking with them.

Opportunities that God is placing in front of you will come and go.

You can’t wait for someone to join you in making the decision to obey His voice or not.

Sometimes, He talked to people who might not have shown any outward offense.

People like the rich young ruler who had kept laws but refused to sell all he had and follow Jesus.

Who is more broken and in need of salvation and forgiveness of sins?

The prostitute?

The tax collector?

The young ruler?

Who is more broken and in need of salvation and forgiveness of sins?

You?

Or could it be me?

The real answer is that those who do not know Jesus as their savior are in need of His forgiveness.

We are all existing in the same need.

Once we ask for forgiveness, believing in Jesus, we are all existing in the same salvation.

We will never be a first class Christian or a second or third class.

Every life is precious to God.

Every one.

As believers, we each have a ministry on the earth.

By following Jesus, there will be those that He wants us to talk to about Him.

Prostitute?

Tax collector?

Ruler?

Maybe.

Neighbor?

Coworker?

Family member?

If we are attentive to His voice, He will let us know.

He sees the hearts of the broken even when we cannot.

As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.”Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.